Senate invites NEITI Executive Secretary over N1.8trn fraud report

Senate yesterday invited the executive secretary, Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI, Waziri Adio, over N1.8trillion fraud uncovered in its oil, gas and solid minerals report.
To this end, the executive secretary is expected to formally present the audit report to the upper legislative chamber in plenary for deliberation.
This development followed a motion moved by Tijani Kaura (APC, Zamfara North), who noted that details from the 2013 audit and financial report of activities in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry showed that Nigeria made $58.07billion from the hydrocarbons industry.
The report also indicated that the sum of $3.8billion and N358.3billion stood as outstanding revenues from the NNPC and its subsidiaries in 2013, even as $12.9billion paid by the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG, to NNPC was not remitted to the federation account.
The Senate therefore expressed concern that in spite of several reports of fraudulent activities in the oil and gas industry, successive governments failed to come out with clearly defined action to recover such monies and avert the trend.
It noted that the federation was not fully taking advantage of its solid minerals endowment on account of unclear legal and taxation regime, inaccuracy of production data and non-transfer of accruable revenues to states and local governments.
Also, the report showed that the country lost $5.966billion and N20.4billion in the sector from the operation of Offshore Processing Agreements, OPA, by the NNPC, crude oil swap and theft.
On their part, Senate President Bukola Saraki who presided over the session and Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu submitted that the motion would not be debated until the report was presented formally by the executive secretary.